A Saba's Words
by misspatchesmom
Summary: Tali finds Eli David's letter to his future grandchildren in her mother's desk; April 2067. Part of the "You Complete Me" universe.


A Saba's Words

_Tali finds Eli David's letter to his grandchildren. April 2067._

Tali opened the small box that she had previously found in her Ima's desk. It contained several folded pieces of paper, a kippah, a diamond earring, and a picture of a family. She recognized the older girl in the photo as her mother. She was certain that the younger girl was her namesake.

She took the top paper into her hand and unfolded the page. At the top, in Hebrew, ‛_To my grandchild(ren) from your Saba:'. _She looked at the photo again; her Saba Eli, Savta Rivka, Doda Tali, and Dod Ari, plus Ima. People who shared a genetic profile with her, but nothing more. She knew that her Abba had met both Ari and Eli, although neither Ima nor Abba ever said much about the two men.

She picked up her phone and snapped a picture of the top of the letter. She then sent a quick text to her brother, ‛_Found this in Ima's desk. Still coming over today?'_

Anthony must have been holding his phone, his reply came back quicker than Tali expected. ‛_Be there in 15; wait for me to read?'_ She was not surprised at his response. Both of them had been digging through files of journals and memories on both Ima's and Abba's computers, much of what they'd found might be useful for the books and follow-up program about Ima and Abba.

While Tali waited for Anthony's arrival, she googled her grandfather, _Eli David._ She read about his accomplishments in the IDF and at Mossad, including his rise to Director of the Israeli agency. All of the online articles that she found mentioned his 'untimely death while on a personal vacation.' No mention of where or how he died; Tali knew better. She had heard part of the story from her mother, and then out of curiosity, had researched the archives at NCIS and read the reports from that fateful day in January 2013. Once she had that information, she understood why her parents did not like to talk about the man, and why Ima rarely mentioned her childhood and family. So much violence had plagued the David family; only Ima had managed to escape it.

Tali made a note to search her mother's digitized journals from 2013 in hopes of finding more from her Ima's point of view on the death of Saba Eli. She knew that 2013 was a painful and stressful year for her parents; she just hoped that Ima and maybe Abba had written in their journals about it. She also knew that she was conceived in the last part in that same year.

Anthony's arrival broke her out of her thoughts. "Hey, sis," he sat next to his older sister in their parents' office, scooting Abba's chair next to where she sat at Ima's desk. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Nothing important; just reflecting on Saba Eli and what we know of his death, and about 2013 in general for Ima and Abba," she responded. "I made a note to remember to look in Ima's digitized journals for that year."

"What do we know so far?" Anthony grabbed a pen and notepad.

"Eli was born in 1941; according to the information that I found online, he was born in late January of that year. His parents were sent to Auschwitz shortly after his birth, and he and his siblings were raised by a German family named Davidsohn until 1948. Remember the story that Ima always told on Yom Hashoah?" she looked over at her brother.

Anthony nodded and made a few notes as Tali continued. "He was in the United States to visit Ima in January 2013, where he was murdered while at dinner with Uncle Leon and his first wife, Jackie. She was also killed. No one knew he was in the United States, and Mossad put a spin on the death that he died suddenly while on vacation to visit his daughter. When I looked at the case files at NCIS, he was in the US to broker a deal with the head of the Iranian equivalent of Mossad. He was killed by a rogue Mossad agent named Ilan Bodnar. Ima and Abba tracked down Bodnar and the man met his end in the Port of Baltimore when he fell from a cargo ship.

"But enough of the violence that seemed to follow Ima and her family; let's read the letter from Saba Eli," Tali unfolded the paper carefully, noting that it had yellowed over time and the page had started to separate at the creases. "How's your Hebrew? I can translate if you want."

"I'm good; if I get to a word I don't know, I'll ask," he hadn't forgotten the language that he learned almost as early as he learned English, but he was out of practice. Brother and sister started reading the letter from their maternal grandfather together.

_'To my grandchild(ren) from your Saba:_

_'There was a time when I dreamed of having a house full of grandchildren in my retirement years. Alas, that is not to be for me in this life time. Of my three children, my Zivaleh, your Ima, was the one that I thought least likely to have a family. Now she is the only possibility to give me a grandchild. Your Doda Tali, my tzipporah, was taken from this world way too soon. Your Dod Ari did not live to see his thirty second birthday. My Zivaleh, my little warrior, has distanced herself from me. Yet, I see her with the American man, the one who has captured her heart, and it makes this old man's heart sing to know that my Ziva is happy. Anthony DiNozzo is a good man; his devotion and loyalty to my Ziva is strong; I know they will have a long life together._

_'There was a time when Ziva was the light of my days. Her smile, her intelligence, her drive to succeed, all these things endeared her to me. She did not know how proud her Abba was that she learned multiple languages, both to read and to speak, by the time she was seven. She has a gift for languages that is to be envied by anyone. Unfortunately, I only saw her as an asset to be groomed as I rose in power within Mossad. Too late, I realized that I had lost her respect and her love. I must find a way to make amends and redemption is a priority as I near retirement._

_'As I write, I imagine a boy and a girl, both with their Abba's grin and eyes, and with their Ima's unruly curls. Perhaps one has green eyes and one has brown eyes, like their parents. I see beautiful children, for my Ziva is a beautiful person in appearance and her soulmate is handsome and charming. I would hope that you would also have your Abba's loyalty and devotion, your Ima's sense of justice and fairness, and possibly the love of film from your father and the love of books from your mother._

_'Perhaps one or more will inherit Ziva's flair for languages, or Anthony's uncanny way of analyzing a situation and solving a mystery. Perhaps one or more will also have a tendency to joke around to diffuse tension, a trait that your father displayed often, sometimes annoyingly. Despite that, he has a good heart, and he loves your Ima will all of his being. I saw that even before he would admit his love for my Ziva. He is a man who deserves her love._

_'I hope for you, my dear grandchild(ren) that you never have to know fear or violent acts that tear families apart and put permanent grief in a father's heart. I pray that your world will be safe and free for you to enjoy your childhood and you will not be forced to take on adult concerns and worries at an early age. I know that your parents will do everything in their power to make it so; they have both seen too much pain and suffering from an early age._

_'Lastly, know that even though you may only exist in the mind of a sad and lonely old man as I write this letter to you, your Saba Eli loves you. If I could, I would spend time with you, reading books, telling you stories of your ancestors, and playing all of the childhood games that your Ima and Abba never had a chance to do. I pray that you keep the innocence of childhood for as long as possible._

_'With much love, Saba Eli'_

Tali and Anthony sat silently after finishing reading the letter from their Saba. Heavy words, heartbreaking words, yet also words of hope, of love. Both wondered why their Ima had never mentioned the letter.

"Wow," Anthony was at a loss for words. "I wish we had the chance to meet him. Underneath the Mossad director who was unemotional and cold from what we've been told by Ima and Abba, and others, Saba Eli really did have a heart."

Tali nodded in agreement, "We need to let the others read this; it gives a whole new perspective on Ima's family, especially Saba Eli. I can only hope that Ima got to give him his chance at redemption in the great beyond…"

Anthony picked up the letter again, rereading it, and thinking about what he knew of his mother's early life and family. He wondered if Ima's journals held any more clues.

"I'm even more curious about Ima's point of view now," Tali turned to her brother.

Anthony grinned at his sister, "You read my mind! I wonder if Abba wrote anything about Eli David in his journals."

"This project is growing in leaps and bounds; the more we find, the more we have questions and want to know," Tali reflected on the information that they had learned since their parents' deaths. "Maybe I should start from the beginning and write Ima and Abba's story? What do you think?"

"Yeah; and you can use the line from that love letter that Ima wrote to Abba way back in 2012. I think it was for his birthday. '_You complete me.' _It really describes them to a tee, doesn't it?"

Tali reflected a minute, "Yeah, that's Ima and Abba in a nutshell. I love it as a title for their story!"


End file.
